The town of Mbanza Kongo, located on a plateau at an altitude of 570 m, was the political and spiritual capital of the Kingdom of Kongo, one of the largest constituted states in Southern Africa from the 14th to 19th centuries. The historical area grew around the royal residence, the customary court and the holy tree, as well as the royal funeral places. When the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century they added stone buildings constructed in accordance with European methods to the existing urban conurbation built in local materials. Mbanza Kongo illustrates, more than anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, the profound changes caused by the introduction of Christianity and the arrival of the Portuguese into Central Africa. During our visits to Mbanza Congo we meet members of the royal family, explore the town, meet a traditional Baking healer and visit the rock paintings found in a cave out of the city depicting scenes of the arrival of the Portuguese to the kingdom.

The Chokwe nation has two kings, both respected as guardians of its identity and traditions If you go to Saurimo seeking to introduce yourself to the King of the Chokwe and to receive welcoming blessings, the inhabitants will ask you: which one? – because there are two kings of the Chokwe in the city. The first is Alberto Ndvumba, called Mwene Mwacisenge waTembo. He lives 20kms north of the city at Sueja. But you may also meet him in his second house in Saurimo, with his wife and some of his relatives. For receptions and official meetings, he always wears traditional costume: a pearl hat, a blue and yellow tunic with a jacket and a sculpted stick. He will welcome you with songs and tell you stories with all his heart. The second king is Carlos Manuel Muatxissenge Watembo, called Muatxissenge Watembo. He also has a home in Saurimo, but he lives most of the time in Itengo, 50 kilometres north of Saurimo on the road to Dundo. Once there, you will be invited to sit next to him in the chota – a circular thatched gathering place constructed of wood – and wearing his pink traditional costume, he will greet you surrounded by village members. He will show you two important places: ipanga, a small roofless enclosure where he can speak with the ancestors, and chiula, a large hut where he dispenses justice. To enrich the visit to the Choke monarchs Last Tribes Angola also proposes a visit to the Dundo Museum with interesting Choke artefacts and organises a traditional Choke masquerade.

Ngoyo was a kingdom of the Woyo clan located in Cabinda.
Located on the Atlantic Ocean coast of Central Africa, north of the Congo River, it was founded by a Bantu people around the 15th century. The capital of the country was Mbanza Ngoyo. It bordered to the north with the kingdom of Kakongo (south of the Kingdom of Loango).By 1700, the Cabinda region became the main supplier for the slave trade north of Luanda, and the economy of the Ngoyo kingdom was greatly affected.
In 1783, Ngoyo's army joined forces with the army of the Kakongo kingdom in an attempt to destroy a Portuguese fort in the area. Eventually, the state was de facto dissolved amid a civil war between pretenders to the throne in the 1830s, following the failure of the country's nobility to decide on a successor monarch. After that, the country signed the Treaty of Simulambuco with the Kingdom of Portugal in 1885, joining the protectorate of Cabinda along with Cacongo and Loango.
To enrich the cultural visit I Cabinda we visit the ethnographic museum of Cabinda city and organise a traditional masquerade known as Bacama